Kathryn Muller of the Rooflight Company, discusses the possibilities that bespoke design offers

Creating Something Special with Bespoke Skylights

Kathryn Muller, Design Studio Manager at the Rooflight Company, discusses the possibilities that bespoke design offers…

Rooflights add light to a room from above. Sunlight from above has a unique quality to it, almost like highlights in a renaissance painting.

But rooflights are more than a tool to increase the brightness of a room, they can also push the boundaries of aesthetics by adding design interest.

‘Bespoke’ tends to mean premium to architects and those in the construction sector. It is used to describe something that is different and unique to clients, something that no one else has. Whilst this is true, it is more than just an upsell. Bespoke offers the ability to break conventional rules and reset boundaries. Products that are specially created to fit specific needs have a special quality to them because they are one-of-a-kind.

At the Rooflight company, most projects we work on won’t need to be bespoke because we have a vast range of off-the-shelf options, and we can stretch our standard sizes for when things need to be just a touch bigger.

But when a homeowner’s vision is unique, or when an architect wants to create something truly special, my ears instantly prick up. This is when our bespoke team can step in and make dreams a reality.

If you can think of it, then our bespoke team can design and engineer it. It’s this outlook that has led us to work on some truly sensational projects. When we work on a bespoke project, it is a high value, creative experience. We become part of your team, achieving your goals and it’s always really rewarding.

And we aren’t just talking about shape. We can also produce products with added capabilities. This might be increased thermal or acoustic performance, security, obscured, or switchable glass, or maybe even decorative glass. This extra flexibility allows us to deploy skylights in less traditional areas of a home, such as bathrooms, music studios and dressing rooms.

One of my favourite projects I have worked on involved us ‘capping’ six low-profile pods of a standing seam roof. It was so unique that I haven’t come across a similar project since. Each of the roof’s pavilions had its own unique shape, so not only did the skylight fill the room below with large amounts of light, but they were also all slightly different.

We worked closely with the homeowner, who was also the architect, to get every last detail about the project right. Essential to this process was working with a third-party surveyor to create a 3D model of the uniquely shaped roof. Once we had this, we were able to use our CAD software to ensure our drawings were 100 percent accurate, so that our bespoke skylights would seamlessly slot into place without twisting or leaving gaps in the seal.

Each rooflight featured edge-to-edge glazing with concealed motorised actuation. We colour-matched the frame to match the terracotta shade of the cladding to create a seamless transition between the elevations and fool the eye into thinking a pane of glass had simply been set on top.

The cherry on top is that our bespoke service is nearly as fast as our off-theshelf options because we assemble them at our UK-based factory in the Cotswolds. So, your vision is no longer limited by what’s available off-the-shelf. Use bespoke to push the boundaries.

For more information, visit

www.therooflightcompany.co.uk.

Regulations: • BRE • BREEAM • BS EN 17037 • EN 17037 • LEED v4 • EFA

Waldram tools – daylighting software

MBS has been developing software for over 25 years, delivering applications that are powerful and easy to use.

Spring 2022 brings the expected release of the BRE’s 3rd edition of ‘Site planning for daylight and sunlight: a guide to good practice’. The guide has been updated to include the new metrics outlined within BS EN 17037.

MBS has been working hard to incorporate the new metrics within the software, so that its users can hit the ground running following the BRE’s release.

VSC – Waldram Diagram

Used by Architects, Daylighting Consultants, Rights of Light Consultants, Planning Consultants, Local Authorities and Sustainability Consultants.

• VSC • NSL/DD • ADF • APSH • 2hr Sunlight to Amenity • Daylight Factor • sDA / Illuminance Method • Sunlight Exposure • View • DGP • Solar Glare • Solar Radiation • Rights of Light • UDI • ASE • Transient Shadow • Façade Analysis

Radiance Based Image Climate Based Daylight Modelling

Available in: